


Black Hat

by Dragonsteamfan



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-20 19:11:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18531355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonsteamfan/pseuds/Dragonsteamfan
Summary: It isn't often that someone who knows about the supernatural doesn't know who The Sister is, but Dawn Summers isn't above taking advantage when she meets someone who doesn't.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: As usual, I own nothing but my OC's, even the plotbunny belongs to the muse. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her universe belong to Joss.
> 
> A/N: I haven't done anything with Buffy for some time now. The muse just hasn't been cooperating at all on that front. That is she wasn't until she saw Black Hat from Priest on YouTube. Now I've got a brand new OC that won't leave me alone. The character belongs entirely to the muse, but the physical look belongs to Karl Urban. By the way, the movie is ok too, just not a very muse happy one for me. On to the story!

March

 

The dance floor was full of dancing young women, most of them too young to be in the mixed species club, but the owner wasn’t stupid enough to think that any of his demonic bouncers could keep a single Slayer out, much less an entire group of them. He leaned out on the rail of the balcony above the dance floor and muttered to himself, “They’d better not be serving the Slayers alcohol or I’m going to turn them into dinner for you.” 

His eyes flashed gold under his black, wide brimmed had. “Frankie knows that and we’ve got lots of fruit juice, lemonade, and soda for them. I had them stock up after the girls started to come in. They drank us dry the first night.” A set of bright fangs flashed in the man’s grin. 

The flashes of eye and fang quickly disappeared as all of the Slayers lifted their heads and looked around for the vampire they sensed. They went back to dancing after a moment, but the man thought that they were getting a bit irritated at the here and gone again sense that he was giving them. “It’s bad enough that you have to hide when they’re around,” the man grumbled. “How are we supposed to hunt when they’re here all the time?”  
“I think that’s the idea,” he answered his own question. “They don’t want us out there because they think we kill people.”  
“If you tried it, you know what would happen.”  
“Yeah, you’d puke,” the man sighed, the argument long since argued out and dealt with.

Frankie, a human and the club’s manager, was used to ignoring her employer’s habit of arguing with himself, and referring to himself as two different people. She’d known he was crazy when she took the job and it paid very well in compensation. She finished walking up the steps to the balcony. “They brought in the Red Witch tonight as well as both senior Slayers.” She watched as the man tensed, as if fighting a fight or flight reaction. 

After a moment he turned to her. “Send them up.” His ankle length leather coat swirled around him as he went to sit at the table at the back of the balcony. He set one boot on the table and draped his arms along the back of the bench. His head lowered to the point where it almost looked like he was sleeping. Frankie knew better. He had scared the living daylights out of most of the staff at one time or another with that pose. She shook her head and went to find the Resurrected Slayer and her group.

It was a serious group of young adults who walked up the stairs to greet the owner of the club. “Greetings to you Bright Slayer, Dark Slayer, Red Witch and White Knight,” the owner said, his face hidden in the shadow of his hat. “I suspect that your errand here tonight is more than simply the fact that your young ladies have come to a club that they are technically too young for.”

“Rumor has it you’re nuts,” the young man he’d called White Knight said bluntly. 

The man sighed. “And you need to find out the truth behind the rumors,” he said. “Actually I could almost wish that was the case. It would be easier to deal with my situation if I was crazy. Please sit.” He gestured to the chairs scattered in front of the table. Buffy Summers, Faith Lehane, Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris all sat down. 

The man raised his head, showing them the scruffy face of a handsome man with dark hair and hazel eyes. “About thirty years ago I woke up on an altar. The entire area around it was pretty much devastated, covered in the remains of demons. I’m pretty sure that whoever it was that wrecked the party thought that I was dead and had left me there in order to go after whoever was responsible.” He turned his hands, clad in black fingerless gloves, over in a shrug. “What I woke up to was no memory and a body that was no longer solely my own. We’ve been to several demonic doctors. As far as they could tell us, the mage somehow fused us together.” He brought his hands together. 

“We ended up with a case of physical multiple personality disorder. When I control our body, it’s human. When my brother controls us, we are a vampire. This effect is permanent. We don’t know who did it, why the mage did it, or how it was done. We have had to learn how to get along with each other.” 

His eyes flashed gold and Buffy and Faith stiffened - the feeling that a slayer had when a vampire was nearby suddenly filling the room. “This means that we’ve had to find other ways to hunt since both of our needs must be met without causing harm to the other. My brother has a tendency to throw up if my blood is spiced with pain or death.” 

His eyes changed back to their normal hazel. “And he has a tendency to get sick if I eat garlic. That’s only one example of the adjustments we’ve had to make but I do believe it answers the question that you are most concerned about.”

Buffy held up her hand. “Willow?” she asked.

The young woman known throughout the supernatural world as the Red Witch of Sunnydale had been watching the man from the moment she’d set foot on the balcony. “He’s telling the truth. I can see both of them. They’re just like Ben and Glory.” She turned to the man. “So, if pain and death are out how do you hunt?”

The man suddenly smirked. “Freely given blood is much nicer and I certainly don’t mind finding enough dates to keep him healthy.” He was aware of who Glory had been. The Hellgoddess had made enough enemies that the news had swiftly made the rounds when she had fallen to the Bright Slayer and her Scoobies. He hadn’t known that she had been like them, but at least the fact that the Bright Slayer and her people had known about Glory made it easier for them now.

Faith smirked right back at him. “You ever hook up with a Slayer?” the invitation was thick in her voice.

The man switched from human to vampire quickly. “Don’t tempt him! I’m not that stupid even if he is. Damned humans and their hormones.”  
“You’re the one who’s perpetually frustrated, not me.”  
“Of course I’m frustrated, I can’t even get a decent kill.”  
“Killing off your food supply is a study in stupidity.”  
“Only if you kill all of them,” the vampire grumbled halfheartedly.

The back and forth switching between the two men living in the same body was rather entertaining, if confusing, but Buffy quickly put a stop to it as it was beginning to give her whiplash. “Listen, personally I don’t care what your personal issues with each other are. I’m glad that you’re not interested in world endage or going out on a killing spree. So that leaves just one thing. Why didn’t you kick the mini slayers out? You’re right about them being too young to be in here legally.”

“I know that they can take care of themselves as long as they aren’t drunk, and I don’t allow my bartenders to serve them anything that might induce that state. I’m also not stupid enough to think that I could come out on top in a confrontation with the four of you. All I ask is that they don’t bully my bouncers and don’t trash my club.”

“Deal,” Buffy said and shook his hand. “They need a place to blow off steam.”

 

A week later the man was back at the balcony watching the slayers dance again. This time it was not the slayers that had his attention, but a young woman that they’d brought with them. She was a magic user, a mage. They’d hated mages ever since they’d found out that one was responsible for sticking them together. He allowed his vampire brother to take over as they watched one of their employees bring the girl up.

Once her long brunette hair and clubbing make up, along with clothes to match would have been a delight to watch and to eat the vampire knew - back when they were separate. Neither of them had any memories of such a state, but they still knew some things that they had to have learned when they were separate people. As much as he wished for that state, the knowledge that it would never be possible again fed his anger as much as it fed his human brother’s. “I agreed to allow slayers, not magic users,” he growled.

“You let Willow in and I can take care of myself as well as any slayer,” the girl said defiantly.

“I don’t care. Only a fool pisses off the Red Witch or I wouldn’t have let her in either,” he snarled. “I want nothing to do with mages of any kind, not after what happened to us.”

Immediately the girl’s offended body language fell away, and sorrow took its place. “You’re the Glory guy. Oh I am so sorry. No vampire should ever have to suffer something like that. It’s terrible. Have you found a way to hunt at all? Don’t tell me you’re stuck with bottled blood,” the girl chattered on. The vampire was so shocked that he took the metaphorical step back, turning their body over to his brother. 

She didn’t even seem to notice and continued to talk, her words coming so quickly that they were surprised that she didn’t trip over any of them. “Here,” she pulled out a small knife and made a small cut on the side of her hand. “Given blood is supposed to be stronger than taken and with my magic its even stronger, so just a little will be even better than a full meal.” He just stared at her in amazement and she huffed a little in aggravation. “Come on, it won’t hurt you and it will help him. It’s not right that he’s leashed, even if it is by you. Now get over here before it spills. We’ll all be in trouble if that happens.”

She had noticed, he realized and he knew that whatever trouble she was talking about was not something that either one of them wanted to have happen. “You are the only one who has ever taken his side,” he said as he took her hand and lifted it to his mouth. “Thank you for that.” He stepped aside for his brother, and the vampire drank the small amount of blood that was beginning to pool in her palm, licking the small cut closed. She tasted green and the rush the blood gave him was more than he anticipated, even with the extras she had mentioned. This one had to be a personal student of the Red Witch with as much power as she had.

The girl shrugged. “Honestly, it’s mostly because of Spike. Did you hear about the Initiative?”

“Who moves in our circles that hasn’t?” he asked. “Tales of humans torturing demons aren’t that common.”

She nodded. “Well, they put a computer chip in his head that caused him pain every time that he hurt a human. He babysat me when I was growing up for money to buy blood down at the local demon bar. He was, well…it was terrible to see what he was like before he found out that he could kill demons. He just, he’d lost so much of himself when he found out that he couldn’t hurt humans anymore, not even to eat.”

“And you felt sorry for him,” the man concluded.

“He had become a friend,” she said simply. “He taught me to shoot a crossbow and hotwire a car.”

“What’s your name, mageling?” the man asked. 

“I’m Dawn,” she said, but she realized that he didn’t recognize the name when he didn’t react. “You don’t know who I am, do you?”

The man cocked his head. “Should I?” he asked.

“My family is pretty well known,” Dawn admitted. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather take advantage of the fact that you don’t know who I am. I don’t have any friends who don’t know, and to be honest none of them can be friends with just Dawn. People either try to take advantage, are too intimidated or just plain screw with me because of who I am.”

The man actually smiled at that. “That makes a sort of karmic balance, because my brother and I don’t know who we are either.”

“What do you mean?” Dawn asked.

“Do you know what we told the Red Witch about how we came to be?” he asked as he guided her to the table at the back of the balcony.

“Yeah, it’s a Glory deal, two people sharing one body space, and you don’t know the who, how or why,” Dawn said as she sat on the bench next to him.

“Yes, but we also don’t have any memories going back before we woke up on that altar as we are,” he told her as he relaxed on the bench. “That includes any names we might have had before we were made one.”

“So what do people call you then?” Dawn asked, curious.

The vampire grinned. “People call us Black Jack.”


	2. Chapter 2

Trying to sneak into the Cleveland slayer school just wasn’t possible, but Dawn gave it her best shot. That being said, she wasn’t surprised to find most of the Scooby gang waiting for her. “Where have you been?!” Buffy demanded to know.

The entire Scooby Gang were all in the kitchen, some obviously having just gotten up for the day and others just coming in from the last patrol of the night. Xander was passing out cups of coffee while Andrew was beginning the heroic effort that it took to keep all of the students and staff fed. Giles was having his usual cup of tea. Dawn could see the end of his tea ball draped over the side of his mug. Willow and Tara (it had turned out that Sunnydale Hospital had a bad habit of reviving recently legally dead people who hadn’t been completely dead and selling them to the highest bidder – and hadn’t that been a struggle to keep Darth Willow from making an appearance) were huddled together at the breakfast bar that separated the kitchen from the dining room in robes and slippers. Buffy and Faith were standing next to Giles, covered in demon gore and vampire dust, which wasn’t unusual for them coming in from patrol.

She really did not want to get into this with everyone watching, but it looked like she didn’t have much choice. “I was out, Buffy. You know, Friday night – go out and have fun?” Dawn asked.

“You ditched the mini slayers,” Buffy growled. “You could have…”

“Been kidnapped, sacrificed, eaten, mugged, raped, and on and on and on,” Dawn interrupted her sister. “I know the list Buffy, but I’m not fourteen anymore and it was Friday night, not Tuesday.”

“The fact that you are eighteen doesn’t mean that you can ignore the fact that you are in danger Dawn, or ignore the rules,” Buffy scolded. “We’re supposed to know where you are, even if it isn’t Tuesday. You ditched the minis you promised to stay with!”

“I never left the club!” Dawn protested. “I met a guy and we talked all night, and none of you,” she pointed around the room, “are going to talk to him, threaten him, or even look at him! He doesn’t know who I am and just once I’d like to find out what it is like to have a guy like me or hate me because of me instead of you!” Buffy flinched at that, but Dawn didn’t take it back. Far too many times slaying had gotten in the way of her having a life and as much as Buffy went on and on about Dawn having a normal life, she really needed to let her out long enough to have one. 

“Are you sure he doesn’t know who you are?” Willow asked skeptically. “That place is mixed you know, and not many people who go in there don’t know about what goes bump.” Tara nodded worriedly.

“He knows what goes bump, but he’s only knows the main Scoobies and that’s mostly through gossip,” Dawn explained, putting her purse down on the counter. “He thinks that I’m one of Willow’s students and a Watcher in Training.”

“Hey! You’re a Scooby too! Don’t count yourself out,” Xander scolded, waving his finger at her.

“Yeah, I know, I’m Scrappy, but he’s totally old school. He might have heard that The Sister exists, but that’s it,” Dawn said as she was handed a plate with breakfast. “And can I say just how hard it was to not speak Scooby when talking about what goes grrr in the night? I slipped when I talked about Glory guy, but that was before I knew he didn’t know.”

“Are you tellin’ me that you met a guy and all you did was talk all night?” Faith asked. “Girl, we got to get your priorities straight,” she joked.

“FAITH!” Buffy squeaked.

“Relax Buffy, I’m not interested in jumping in the sack with anybody,” Dawn promised her. “Even if it would keep about half my kidnappers from wanting me and leaving me with yet more reasons to hate bikini season.” When Buffy looked puzzled she sighed. “Virgin sacrifice, ring a bell?” Leaving Buffy, and Giles from the frown on his face, to deal with that particular rock and a hard place, Dawn took her plate off to her room. She needed a shower and at least four hours of sleep before hitting her homework. She still had that Sumerian to Latin to English translation to get to.

 

Hours later

“Dawn, you up yet?” Willow asked, quietly knocking on her door. She didn’t want to wake the Key turned human if she wasn’t.

“Yeah, I’m up,” Dawn called out, distractedly. She was neck deep in musty old tomes, several scrolls and the computer files that she kept for her own translations.

“Hey, I’ve got something for you,” Willow said as she came into the room. Dawn’s room was just as big as any of the rest of the Scoobies’ suites, mostly because she had flat out refused to room with one of the mini slayers. The new slayers were divided up into four groups – the babies - ages thirteen to fifteen who were newly called, the minis – ages sixteen to seventeen, junior slayers – who were over eighteen and recently given their first Watchers and first assignments, and full slayers, who had their permanent Watchers and field assignments. “I’ve been working on a way for you to have a locator and a 911 button. I came up with this.” She held out an amulet.

“You’re lo-jacking me?” Dawn protested.

“No, it’s more like Xander’s ‘My date is about to eat me, come slay her’ code,” Willow told her.

Dawn glared. “You’re lo-jacking me. I’m never going to get rid of the virgin sacrifice deal.”

Willow grinned. “I thought you weren’t interested.”

Dawn snorted. “Of course I’m interested, I just can’t find a guy with all of you hanging over my shoulder and handing out shovel speeches at the drop of a hat.” She sighed and took the amulet from Willow. She did understand why she needed it, but she really was getting sick of needing a backup squad every time some stupid idiot thought that she would make a good sacrifice. “Plus I’ve got the Scooby romance curse. The first guy I ever kissed was a vampire who tried to turn me and I had to stake him.”

“Well, what about this new guy?” Willow asked, trying to be supportive. She really did understand about the trials of trying to find someone decent to date in the supernatural world. “How does he score on the yummy scale?”

Dawn closed her eyes and thought. “Eight point five with a side of scruffy, but he’s a solid nine for personality.”

“So, cute and headed into hot,” Willow mused. “Why’d you give him such a high score for personality?”

“How many guys do you know who aren’t language geeks would willingly listen to me talk about ancient human languages and complain about the fact that there isn’t a Rosetta stone for ancient demon languages for two hours without complaining, changing the subject, or having their eyes glaze over?” Dawn asked seriously.

“Why didn’t you give him a ten?” Willow wanted to know. “After that, he really deserved it.”

“He hates magic and magic users,” Dawn said. “He got bit by someone using serious black magic.”

“Once bitten, twice shy,” Willow quoted.

Dawn nodded. “He’s seriously in hate. I don’t blame him though. It was a total Xandered Ethan.” 

Willow winced. “Well, at least he isn’t taking it out on you.”

“Yeah, but I still think I want to try the friend thing first. If it goes there later, I’ll deal with it then,” Dawn said. 

PAGEBREAKPAGEBREAKPAGEBREAKPAGEBREAKPAGEBREAK

Jack was in the process of getting them dressed when he finally gave up ignoring his brother’s agitation. The vampire wasn’t talking to him, wasn’t willing for some reason to come forward and use their body to communicate. He walked over to Black’s dresser and placed his hand on the mirror. “Reveal,” he snapped, and the mirror changed. Instead of his own reflection the mirror now showed Black pacing back and forth. “What is wrong with you?”

The vampire continued to pace. “The girl,” he admitted. “I want her.”

“She’s not a meal!” Jack said, leaning in towards the mirror. 

“Not like that!” Black protested, throwing up his hands. He crossed his arms over his chest and finally stopped pacing. Jack was relieved. Black’s internal pacing had kept him up for hours and he really hadn’t gotten enough sleep by the time the alarm had gone off. “I want to claim her,” Black admitted quietly.

“We only met her last night. She’s too young. She’s only eighteen,” Jack said, a little too quickly. “If you tried she’ll get pissed off and so will the Red Witch. The last thing we need is to have two powerful magic users gunning for us.”

“You like her too,” Black said. He slipped out of his agitated stance and turned to face his brother.

“Of course I like her too,” Jack said. He thought that Black’s knowing grin was a bit much. “That doesn’t change the facts. She’s still too young and claiming her is a bad idea.”

“She won’t be too young forever,” Black pointed out. “She’ll be old enough for your tastes in less than a decade.”

Jack paused. He’d been so busy coming up with reasons to put Dawn in the off limits category that he hadn’t thought about the fact that they didn’t age. They hadn’t aged a day since they’d woken up thirty years ago. That little fact turned the entire situation into something completely different. He grinned right back at his brother. “You’re right. More importantly, seven or eight years gives us enough time to convince her that we’re serious when we finally ask her. We need to become friends with her and then we need to court her. When she’s old enough, we’ll ask, both of us. You’ll claim her.”

“And you’ll marry her,” Black finished.

“We’ll have to take this slow, but the first thing we need to do is to make sure that she doesn’t forget us.” Jack thought for a moment. “We need to send her a gift if she doesn’t come back tonight.” He returned to buttoning up his shirt.

“Doesn’t Glimaok come in tonight?” Black asked. Jack nodded. They weren’t sure exactly what demon species Glimaok was, but he was one of their regulars at the club. He owned a book shop, one that catered to both humans and demons. “I bet he’d know something that a Watcher in Training could use.”

“She was complaining about not having translations for ancient demon languages remember?” Jack asked.

Black nodded. “I bet there are spawn’s lessons books or scrolls out there, something like human’s children’s books or something that they use to teach young scholars.”

“Nothing too easy though,” Jack warned. “The last thing we want is for her to think that we don’t take her seriously. Remember her reaction to you getting out the milk and cookies?”

Black grimaced. “You saved our hides there, telling her they were for you and if she wanted some she had to get herself a glass. I thought that all young humans liked milk and cookies.”

“They do,” Jack told him. “The trouble was that she’s an adult, not a child and that is what you offer children. She’s also only recently become an adult so she’s probably rather sensitive about still being treated like a kid.”

“And then she goes and starts a war over who got the most Oreos.” Black shook his head. “I’m never going to understand humans.”

“You’ve got to admit it was fun,” Jack said. He began looking around their bedroom for their boots.

“It was the most fun we’ve had in years,” Black said softly. “I don’t want to lose her.”

“We won’t,” Jack said firmly. He finished lacing up their boots and moved back to the mirror. “If we have to be there every second of the next eight years and help her out with keeping the apocalypse from happening then that’s what we’ll do.”

“Oh hell, we’re going to end up one of those Scoobies aren’t we,” Black groaned.

Jack made a face, but nodded in resignation. “Return,” he said, placing his hand on the mirror once more. The mirror returned to its original state. “If that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes. She’s worth it.”

“No question,” Black agreed.


	3. Chapter 3

Glimaok was more than pleased to have gotten an invitation to have a drink up on Black Jack’s balcony. Few people were accorded the honor as unlike most vampires, Black Jack held himself mostly apart from the local supernatural community aside from Jerico, the club that he owned. He made no childer or minions, and he had no desire to gather power or end the world as most vampires did. Most demons thought that it was his particular brand of insanity that led him to lead such a strange life. After all, it wasn’t every vampire that thought he was an incubus.

Glimaok was a Zykeeekle demon, the shop keepers of the demonic world. They could pass for human, and often did when dealing with customers, unless someone looked closely. They had quills in their hair, and more serious spikes along their limbs, sharp teeth and retractable claws that extended from their fingers. As a race the most important thing overall for them was profit, but that didn’t mean that they did not have hobbies and other interests as well.

Black Jack’s delusions weren’t the strangest thing that Glimaok had ever heard about, he was in the information business after all, but it did make dealing with the vampire easier when he knew that Black Jack wasn’t looking at him as food. “Thank you for the drink, Black Jack. What can I do for you?” he asked, getting right down to business. He wasn’t foolish enough to think that the vampire was interested in anything from him but information. Once the vampire had that information and paid for it, he could go back to his evening out.

“I know that you have noticed the slayers coming into the club lately,” Jack said. Glimaok nodded. “I have no objections to them as long as they behave themselves.”

“I would have thought that they would be on the menu for you,” Glimaok ventured. The vampire’s meals were exclusively women after all.

Black gave the demon a glare before replying. “They may be pretty and their blood may be powerful, but I’m not stupid enough to stick my neck in that trap. That is nothing more than a good way to die and we have no interest in doing so. 

“No, we’ve met a young lady who is studying to be a Watcher. She’s frustrated over her efforts to learn some of the older demonic languages. The First killed off all of the Watchers who could have taught her and she’s trying to teach herself. Now, we may not be very old or have a lot to do with the demonic community, but we do keep our ears open. There are prophecies out there that are only written in those languages. We like it here and I think that you do as well.” 

The implications of the information that Black was passing on did not escape Glimaok. It was the Watchers who made certain that the slayers stopped the apocalypse from happening, and if they couldn’t read the prophecies, then they couldn’t do their jobs. He nodded. “Not to mention that army of slayers needs to be aimed away from the likes of us. Well, I do have a few things that might help.”

Black was about to begin bargaining when the young lady in question came up the stairs to the balcony. “Mageling, I want you to meet Glimaok. He owns a book store over on Carnegie Avenue and is a collector of old books and scrolls written by various demon clans. Glimaok, this is the young lady and Watcher in Training that I was telling you about.” 

“Greetings, may your nest never fail in its ventures,” Dawn said with a small bow. Now she was glad that she hadn’t dressed to go clubbing. She looked like a serious student with her hair pulled back in a bun and wearing a sweater with her jeans instead of one of Buffy’s tops. She just hoped that she had remembered the right way to say hello. Giles had taught her quite a few different traditional greetings which were meant for different types of demons.

Glimaok threw his head back and laughed. “Well spoken little Watcher, well done indeed. If even half of the new Watchers are as polite as you are I am certain that my business with thrive. May all that you touch bring profits to your nest, little Watcher,” he said, returning the very proper greeting that she had given him. “There are few Watchers in the past who would have even bothered to acknowledge the likes of me.”

Dawn couldn’t help it. She snorted as she sat down next to Black Jack. “The old Watchers Council were bigots of the highest order. The First actually did us a huge favor when its Bringers bombed them off the face of the planet. We may be in a bit of a tight spot now when it comes to recruiting new Watchers for all the baby slayers, but this way we can make sure that they aren’t the sort to treat anyone the way the old guys did, including neutral and friendly demons. We even have a few on staff at the slayer school. It helps teach the mini and baby slayers that not everything should be killed on sight.”

“Goddess Bless the Resurrected Slayer and her compassion,” Glimaok toasted. “She has truly changed our worlds.”

“Goddess Bless.” Jack lifted his glass as well.

“May her next death be long in coming,” Dawn said, lifting the glass of orange soda spiked with tabasco that one of the wait staff had brought her. It was the same drink that she had ordered the night before. One of the nice things about demon bars and clubs was that she could get a good drink without being looked at funny.

“So I am told that you need a source of translations for ancient demon languages,” Glimaok told her.

“Yes,” Dawn said, throwing a glance at Jack. His eyes flashed and she could just tell that Black was laughing at her. “I know modern Klikaldor, Frayal, and Toloack as well as Sumerian, Latin, and Old Norse but I don’t have any place to begin translating the older demonic languages. A lot of the old Council library’s collection was misplaced or lost when the Council’s headquarters exploded. We’re replacing them as quickly as we can find them, but any new source will be very welcome.” 

Glimaok hummed and then nodded. “I do believe that I may be of service. Give me a few days to make up a list of what I have for sale besides the usual prophecy texts. If there are enough items that your people are interested in, I do have discounts for volume customers. Here’s my card and good evening to you both.” He handed Dawn a business card and with a bow left to return to the bar.

“You were listening,” Dawn accused. For that alone she’d have to give him another half a point.

“Kind of hard not to,” Black joked.

“Yes, but you didn’t let it go in one ear and out the other. I’ve met men who could convince anyone that they were paying attention when in fact they were sleeping with their eyes open,” Dawn said with a smile.

“Ah, but you made it interesting and a bit alarming,” Jack said, and tugged on one the strands of hair that had escaped her bun. The backs of his fingers brushed the chain around her neck and he pulled his hand back with a yelp. “Ouch, what is that? It bites.”

Dawn sighed. “Willow lo-jacked me,” she admitted sheepishly. “My magic is really strong, even though I can’t do much with it yet. I’ve only been studying for a little over a year now with Willow and Tara although we’ve known about it since I was fourteen. I’m taking it slow because I’ve seen what can go wrong with using magic and getting myself addicted to it is the last thing I want. In the meantime, I’m vulnerable to whoever wants to use me as a sacrifice for whatever and uses overwhelming force to get me.”

“Does that happen often?” Jack asked, a bit jokingly. He knew that she hung out with slayers and went to the school. Surely the slayers could take care of anyone who thought that sacrificing Dawn would be a good idea before they got very far.

“It’s a Tuesday problem,” Dawn said with a shrug.

“A Tuesday problem?”

“It happens about once a month and usually on a Tuesday,” Dawn explained. “I think that Willow made up the locator and 911 amulet because she got tired of casting locator spells without any warning because someone realized I was missing.”

“There can’t be that many rituals or spells that need a human sacrifice, can there?” Jack asked worriedly. He’d never really looked into magic that much, wanting to stay far away from it after what had happened to him and Black, but this was part of Dawn’s life. If there was a problem that they could help with, even if it was just by Black having some fun by beating the life out of someone stupid enough to touch their mageling, they needed to know the facts first.

“Well, first off a lot of different types of demons like to kill humans. It’s fun for them, and way back in prehistory they decided that sacrificing humans was much better than sacrificing one of their own spawn whenever a blood sacrifice was needed. So a lot of demonic rituals were reworked with a human taking the place of the usual offerings,” Dawn explained. 

She’d never had anyone actually ask about the why behind her little problem with being kidnapped. It was usually just - oh Dawn’s been kidnapped again, let’s go rescue her and have fun slaying all the big bads, but Jack really was interested and paying close attention and somehow Dawn could tell Black was paying just as much attention as his brother. It definitely gave her stomach flutters, but she wasn’t going to pay attention to that right now.

“Then you have the demons who developed a taste for certain types of humans and are willing to give favors to people, either demon or humans, who are willing to feed their cravings. A couple of examples are the Mayor of Sunnydale handed over a bunch of babies as part of his ascension to demonhood, and there was a fraternity that I heard about that offered a snake demon two or three high school aged girls every fifty years in exchange for wealth and power. And then there is the fact that any spell can be given a power boost with a blood sacrifice. It’s just that white witches and the like offer up their own blood while black magic users use the blood of others.

“When you add in the all the demons and people who either try to end the world by opening the hellmouth or just to use it to gain power for themselves, it really isn’t surprising that they try to grab the one person that they know will give them the biggest power boost as a sacrificial victim. Of course about a quarter of the time I’m kidnapped, it’s because of my family, and then it’s the usual ‘do this or do that or we’ll kill her sort of thing.”

“So I get why they wouldn’t be stupid enough to try the Red Witch, or one of the Senior Slayers, but why would you be the one to give them the biggest boost as you put it?” Jack asked.

Dawn gave a bit of an awkward shrug, trying not to blush. “Between the whole purity thing, the fact that I’m as strong magically as Willow, and my family I’m probably the only three strike sacrificial lamb anywhere near the hellmouth. So I ended up having bikini season ruined for me before I was even old enough to fill one out properly.”

They stifled their first instinct to offer to help her take care of the purity problem for the simple reason that they wanted far more from her than simply a single meal. “How so?” Jack asked. In answer Dawn lifted the hem of her sweater just enough to show them the two scars that were all that was left of the first time someone tried to sacrifice her. “Tell us that the ones responsible for those are dead,” they growled.

There was a weird echo in the growl that told Dawn they were both talking at the same time. “Four years dead,” she promised.

They relaxed and Black retreated, giving control to Jack. He stood up, taking off Black’s coat and hat. Then he sat down and shoved the sleeves of his shirt up, exposing their arms and the scars that they carried. “As one sacrificial victim to another, don’t let them dictate your life. If you want to wear a bikini, wear one and show your scars with pride. That they exist at all means that you won and they lost. Ours have no impact on how we dress. We dress the way we want to, when we want to, regardless of whether or not our scars will show.”

Dawn blinked. “I never thought about them that way before. All I could see was the price that my family paid to rescue me.”

“I’d hazard a guess that it was a price they paid willingly,” Jack said as he gently brushed a finger across the scars. 

All Dawn could do was nod. Buffy had paid the price willingly, jumping from the platform right into the dimensional breach and dying for her magically created little sister. That had led to a couple of years of badness, but in the end everything had worked out for the better. All of the potentials would now become slayers and they would not be fighting alone. They would have their sister slayers and Watchers trained by the Scoobies to support their slayers instead of using them. “You’re right. They are something to be proud of,” she told them as she ran a finger over the scar tissue that covered their wrists and ran up their arms.


	4. Chapter 4

May

 

How the latest big bad had come up with this idea Dawn didn’t know, but it was alarmingly effective in distracting their efforts in keeping big, bad and stupid from opening the hellmouth. “I HATE YOU!” someone screamed out in the hall, and Buffy’s Troll hammer came crashing through the library wall. On the other side of the research table Andrew whimpered in fear. 

It was either her keyness or sheer dumb luck that Dawn wasn’t affected by the curse like every other female at the school. Personally Dawn would have bet on it being the dumb luck as she was a very female Key, thank you very much. Giles, Wesley and Xander, backed up by the rest of the male staff and students were doing their best to contain the damage, but there was only so much that they could do. It was up to Dawn and Andrew to find the way to break the curse, Dawn because she wasn’t affected and Andrew because just the sight of him was enough to set off another round of continental sized mood swings.

It wasn’t like those who lived at and ran the school hadn’t dealt with slayers with PMS before. There was usually at least four or five with the condition at any given time roaming the halls, but never before had ALL of the slayers, witches, lady hunters and female Watchers had it all at the same time and magically increased by an incredible amount. 

Slayers who laughed off what would be life threatening injuries to anyone else were down in the infirmary whimpering in pain from cramps and headaches. Many of the girls couldn’t stay awake, no matter what they tried, and more couldn’t leave the bathrooms. The rest seemed to swing between anger and tears as the rest of the symptoms such as bloating, pimples, food cravings, etc. were driven far beyond what was normal. To say the least it was chaos at slayer central.

As Andrew sat and stared at the Troll hammer, terrified that the next slayer tantrum was going to kill him, Dawn had finally had enough. In order to break the curse, they first had to find out what the exact wording was which meant research, but that research couldn’t be done when every five minutes they were interrupted by screams, yelling, fighting, and now Troll hammers being thrown through the walls. It was time to get out of here and find some peace and quiet where they could concentrate. 

The only trouble was there really weren’t that many quiet places that Dawn knew about where they could spread out with books on magic, demons and the moon goddess (the obvious origin of the curse). Every place where she knew that the people who owned the place knew about the supernatural was usually busy and crowded. Dawn straightened up as a thought struck her – except for Jerico at this time of day. It was ten in the morning, which meant that Black Jack’s club would be closed right now. 

“Andrew, pack up the books and take them down to my car. I’ll meet you there in a minute,” she ordered, and ran out of the room. She went down to the infirmary, where Wesley was watching over Faith, Buffy and Willow. The Dark Slayer was curled up on one of the beds, whimpering in pain from the cramps. Willow was crying from the pain of the migraines. Tara couldn’t even stand to be in the same room with her girlfriend because of her own problems – namely keeping her temper and not blasting everything around her with her magic because Willow was in such pain.

Wes was sitting in between the two beds, helpless to stop the effects, but refusing to leave his slayer. He had made a promise to her when she’d asked him to return as her Watcher and nothing was going to make him break it. He had a stack of books in front of him, piled on the floor and a book on his lap. One hand was turning pages, while the other was stroking Faith’s back letting her know that he was still there. “Wes, find anything?” Dawn asked as she entered the long room filled with beds, women and girls crying and in pain, and the male medics trying to ease it.

Wesley shook his head. “There’s nothing yet. When I get my hands on the bloody pillock who did this…” His voice trailed off, but the look on his face said it all. There wasn’t a single male Watcher here who wasn’t ready to tear apart the person responsible apart with his bare hands, and no few of the female Watchers had already tried to leave the school in order take their tempers and their slayer’s out on the local vampire population. Fortunately for the demonic and human populations of Cleveland, Giles had forbidden any of them from leaving.

“I’m taking Andrew and getting out of here. Alice threw Buffy’s Troll hammer through the library wall.” Wes winced. Alice was only fourteen. Xander was going to have his work cut out for him when this was all done with all the repairs that would be needed from slayer temper tantrums. “We’re taking the books with us and finding a quiet spot to research. We’ll have our cell phones on, so if you find anything give us a call.”

“Of course, this place really isn’t conductive to quiet research right now. Call me if you find anything that I can help with,” he requested.

Dawn nodded and stopped by Buffy’s bed, laying her hands on her sister’s head before leaving. Buffy had insisted that Giles and the others not sit with her. They had other things that had to be done, namely finding and breaking the curse so that she could break big, bad and stupid. Dawn refused to cry as she pulled out her cell and told Giles that she and Andrew were headed out. He could have been anywhere in the school and she didn’t want to waste time trying to find him.

Andrew had filled her back seat with books and was closing the lid of her trunk when she arrived at the parking lot. “I’ve got everything from the library, including all of the dictionaries just in case.”

“Good,” Dawn said, as she got in and started the car. Andrew scrambled around and got in the passenger seat. Once he was in and buckled up Dawn left the parking lot. Andrew retrieved the book he had been going through from the dashboard and dove back in. “First things first Andrew.” He looked up. “You are not to tell anyone who my friend is, or so help me I will transport your entire collection of action figures, comics and boxed sets right into the sun. Do you understand?” Andrew gulped and nodded vigorously.

“Good,” she said, and then called Black Jack. “Black Jack, I’ve got an emergency on my hands and I need a quiet place to research. Can I use the club before it opens?”

“Sure, not a problem. When will you get here?” he asked sleepily.

“About ten minutes,” Dawn told him.

 

JERICO

 

A woman leaving the club kissed Jack on the cheek before getting into her car and leaving as Dawn pulled into the parking lot. “Girlfriend?” she asked as she loaded his arms full of heavy books. She had noticed that he was just wearing a pair of blue jeans, (kind of hard not to, it bumped him up to a full nine) although the pattern of scars across his chest was rather interesting in a researchy, not important right now kind of way.

“Dinner,” he said with shrug. He wasn’t going to hide how they kept Black fed. It wasn’t like any of the women meant anything to them more than that. “So what’s the emergency?” he asked, leading the way into the main room of the club. The lights were all on and a couple of tables had been pulled together.

“The most recent apprentice to the forces of darkness, following in Darth Sidious’ foul footsteps has struck a terrible blow against the mighty amazons of the light!” Andrew began.

“ANDREW!” Dawn snapped. “No geek, he doesn’t speak it!” She turned to Black, who had taken over the minute they were out of the sun as he was stronger. “The latest idiots to try and open the hellmouth cursed every girl and woman at the slayer school with a magically enhanced case of PMS. Buffy, Faith and Willow are incapacitated. We need to find out how to break the curse before a) whoever they are does whatever they needs us out of commission for and b) the slayers destroy the school from the continent sized mood swings.”

Black shuddered. “You two stay here and get to work. We’ll get the rest of the books from your car.” Dawn handed over the keys and Black left, shaking his head.

“You’re dating Glory guy?” Andrew wanted to know the minute the vampire had left the room. “And why did his evil alter ego leave the woman alive if she was his dinner?!” he squeaked.

Dawn glared. “We are not dating, we’re just friends. Black doesn’t kill the women whose blood he drinks because it makes Jack sick to their stomach.” She sat down and opened the book that was in front of her. “Now get back to work.”

After Black had set the last of the books down on the table, he reached and dragged another chair over to the table. He sat down and picked up a familiar looking book. He looked over the first page and then dragged one of the dictionaries over, checking to see if he was right. “I can read this,” he told Dawn. “I wonder what other languages we might know.”

Dawn looked up to check which book Black was looking at. “That one is Latin. Good, we need another set of eyes.” They weren’t upset at Dawn’s brusque tone. One slayer with PMS was something to avoid at all costs, all of them with it was an emergency of the highest order and Black was glad to be able to help her beyond giving her a place to research.

Two hours passed with little sound other than pages turning and huffs of frustration. “Mageling, I think Black’s got something here,” Jack said, passing over the book his brother was looking at over his brother’s protests.

“Damn it Jack, it’s not the right one.”

“The curse sounds a bit flowery I’ll admit, but that’s still a good description of PMS.” 

While two argued, Dawn examined the page. “Hemet is the older Egyptian name for Hecate, the moon goddess who was depicted as the maiden, the mother and the crone. More specifically, she’s the patron goddess of a group of vampires called the Empusae. If there is any moon goddess who would go against a slayer, it’s her.”

“See, I told you,” Jack said.

“The curse is fairly straight forward. I’ve got to get it back the school. Thanks so much guys!” Dawn said, jumping up from her chair. She kissed Jack on the cheek. “Remember Andrew, one word about any of this and it’s off to the sun for your stuff!”

They didn’t know what Dawn meant about the boy’s stuff, but it was obvious that he did because he turned the palest shade of white they’d ever seen on a human. “Leave the rest of the books here, and get the slayers back out doing what they do best,” Black said. Dawn kissed his cheek as well, gave Andrew the book, and dragged him out of the club, already talking to Wes on her cell.

“You know, I really don’t envy those vampires once the slayers get a hold of them,” Black said.

“Well they only have themselves to blame,” Jack said as they began gathering up Dawn’s books. “I mean, come on! It’s one thing to try and take over the hellmouth. It’s stupid to try and set yourself up like that, but most master vampires try something like it at least once. But for them to go and deliberately piss off every single slayer in the city where their main headquarters are located?”

“Yeah, we’d better call everyone and tell our crew to stay home tonight. If the club is open tonight it’ll probably get wrecked when the slayers go after them,” Black said. “And I think we should both order our meals in. Doesn’t the Chinese Garden have that one delivery girl?”

“Fast food it is, after a nap though. I’m exhausted,” Jack agreed. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d had rice for breakfast.


End file.
